Some proper reviews
Some of Stuart's work.
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While working my way through The Karamazov Brothers by Dostoevsky, in the
original russian I may add, I felt I needed a break from deep introspective
russian thought on God, Religion and Society, so I picked up Bloodlust by
Rhys Wilcox, and read it from front cover to back. Then I went back and
finished what some call Dostoevskys' masterpiece. This book is massive
nearly 1000 pages long, and the russian master makes every word count. His
final novel, Dostoyevsky wrote this book at the end of his life, taking most
of his final decade to do so, and it incorporates elements from each of his
previous works into one unbelievably complex tapestry. You may have heard
that this book is the story of a murdered father and his sons, one of which
committed the patricide. Such a crude description of the book does no
justice at all to this masterpiece: it is akin to saying that Animal Farm is
about "a bunch of animals who talk and rise up against humans." Indeed, this
event does not even take place in the novel until well over a third of the
way into the book - a length greater than that of most complete novels. It
is merely a backdrop for the real ramifications of the novel: the
psychological, philosophical, and theological ground it treads. As one
perceptive reviewer noted, Dostoyevsky was as much a psychologist and
philosopher as a mere novelist: his works had a huge impact on world thought
in both of these fields - not just in Russia - and influenced everyone from
Freud to Nietzsche to modern-day writers such as James Morrow. The problem
of the existence of God is a central point of the novel - as it is in all of
Dostoyevsky's greatest works - reaching its pinnacle in Ivan Karamazov's
famous tale of the Grand Inquisitor. The work was obviously a huge influence
on the aforementioned Nietzsche as it raised the frightening question that,
if God does not indeed exist, is then everything permitted? - just as Crime
and Punishment anticipated Nietzsche's concept of the Superman. Dostoyevsky
clearly had a lot to say, and he poured it all into this book. A profoundly
deep, penetrating novel that portrays a frighteningly accurate portrait of
human nature, The Brothers Karamazov is truly one of the greatest works of
world literature. One of the greatest novels ever written. So to sum up all
the parts of the whole, well done mate.
Some proper reviews Some of Stuart's work. |
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